Gily

Luna was shit but still miles better than Bennett Villa's defense was as shocking as ever, if you saw the first 20m against Arsenal you were confident the result would end up at 6-0 but Arsenal choked and Villa countered effectively. I'm expecting a big win just like last year. 8-0 !

I'll give you that but he was also on that level when they were playing the Europa League against the likes of Zenit, Athletic Bilbao & Ajax for a better comparison. He is dominating THAT role but you could say the same about Carroll ( shudder ), I just want to see him develop his overall game not only his strengths. I disagree on his first touch though, don't know if you saw today's match but his touch was very heavy. Only 19 is what he's got going for him right now but it will all depend on what happens next season.

12 goals in open play in 1880 minutes, yea it's not bad but it isn't the goals that you should be worried about, it's his other abilities that haven't improved. Everyone knew he could score a goal. Yea I watched 50 mins today because they were playing City, I lost interest in WBA's matches after december but before that I watched nearly all of them and I'm comparing him to those matches + the few he played the seasons before + the 2 seasons before that at Anderlecht. I honestly think he was more of a threat back at 16-17 than he is now. I'm just saying he's always had it in him what he showed this season but his bad points haven't improved over the years.

Started watching at the 30 minute mark, 50m further on and he's made Anichebe look like a worldbeater. ( because he's playing the same type of football currently ) Some horrible passing and first touches as expected, he has learned/improved NOTHING from his stay at WBA. Still cracks me up how he's being rated on this forum like the next Messiah after some motd highlights, another year at WBA is another year wasted.

Lavezzi might have been poking his fingers in his ribcage, trust me I used to know all the tricks in the book

Still a big difference in fine money and crazy money, I remember reading Neymar was earning 500k+ a week with everything combined, wage, bonuses, sponsorships, etc So with the 2014 WC coming up there really is no reason to move to Europe when you're living as a God in Brazil.

It isn't that easy, if Lukaku stays in England next season he'll become a homegrown player.

It's obvious you haven't seen Bennett play then, time and time again I'm amazed how teams don't manage to defeat such a WEAK Villa, they really have some beyond poor players.

I prefer to be called realist Odds were actually pretty good 4/1, for bottlers in a hard group that's a sure bet for me. They're doing "well" so far but I'm pretty sure they won't get more than 3 points out of the 2 matches against Macedonia or they have to do something radical like ... playing with 2 strikers, imagine that

I've got a 1000 € bet running on Belgium not qualifying for Brazil, so yea I predict they'll bottle it again. It was at the draw that I put 750 € into that bet, everyone in Belgium was saying they had a lucky draw and had one of the easiest groups in years. I knew better. Croatia and Serbia are not a laughing matter, sure they're not Germany or Spain but they're just as good as Belgium or even better. Most importantly were the "minnows" we drew : Macedonia, Scotland, Wales. They were neglected as if they were San Marino, Liechtenstein or Faroe Islands. The extra 250 € for the bet was settled when they appointed Wilmots as manager, he's almost a carbon copy of his predecessor who managed to fuck up an extremely easy group for EC2012. He's a motivator just like him, not a tactician which Belgium so sorely need.

Not really, he opens up the play a lot and is always chasing down the ball to put pressure on the defence. He might not be scoring but he's very valuable, Anichebe is in good form yet Jelavic is starting that says it all.

Lots of bandwagoning going on in the last pages, it's obvious who hasn't seen the past WBA matches. Today he only played 20 minutes, more than half of them against a demoralized Liverpool with a retiring 35-year-old defender in their back 2 ( can't call it back 4 with the performance of Johnson & José Enrique today ). Yes he can already be a great striker for Chelsea but no because he won't win you anything. He's not ready yet and will definitely need another loan, preferably to another team with a bit more quality who don't resort to counterattacking from the start.

This is something which I see a lot, people calling Mirallas a great talent/having great potential. He WAS a great talent back at 19-20 when people were calling him the Ronaldo of the lowlands but he never lived up to his potential, the guy is 25! Dries Mertens is a great player but not a worldclass player, he wouldn't cut it at a top4 side, anything below and he would be brilliant for them. Ideally he'd go to Everton to replace Pienaar but they have a tight budget and I reckon Mertens would cost close to 10m £.

I don't rate him at all, he wouldn't even cut it for me at Norwich let alone Chelsea, it's a joke people are suggesting this.

There's a big problem with that. All 3 of them could fit well with Mikel because he'll never go off for a run forward, their defensive work would be minimal which would be optimal for those 3. You could let Fellaini play that role but then I don't see any difference with Mikel, to get the most out of him you need him to make runs into the box which requires a smart player next to him with a good defensive workrate/awareness which neither of those 3 have.